Leesa Evans Shares Her 9 Most Memorable Film Wardrobes

If you've seen a movie directed by Judd Apatow in recent years, then you're familiar with the work of costume designer and stylist Leesa Evans. "He relies on me for the fashion element, and I rely on him for the funny," she says of their prolific 7-year working relationship. After Forgetting Sarah Marshall, their first collaboration, Evans quickly became a naturalized citizen of Apatown, palling around with the filmmaker's usual cast of characters and styling some of his biggest hits from Get Him to the Greek to Amy Schumer's big-screen debut, Trainwreck, which opened in theaters Friday.

Evans, who splits her time between LA and New York and between films and celebrity styling, is big on perfecting one's everyday look—but she's also worked on the most fashion of fashion films, from Clueless, where she got her start, to Zoolander 2 (out in early 2016), which she's currently wrapping in Rome. Evans visited the Bazaar offices to tell us about cutting Rose Byrne out of her clothes, the college roommate who inspired Melissa McCarthy's…unique…style in Bridesmaids, and what to expect from Derelicte's follow-up.

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1Actual Couture Meets Derelicte in Zoolander 2

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"I kept thinking to myself, like, "50% truly couture clothing and 50% pure comedy", and somehow I'll get it right. If it doesn't fulfill that equation, it shouldn't be in the movie.

So many designers have been a dream to work with, helping me take the most outrageous and fun and Zoolander-like items in their line and twisting the fabrics or, if they never made silver leather pants to go with a silver leather coat, actually making them for the movie. Valentino has obviously been fantastic at the atelier in Rome, which is the city where we're shooting. They're my 911 hotline. But also Saint Laurent, Balmain, CoSTUME NATIONAL, Kenzo, Opening Ceremony, Alexander Wang and Balenciaga—I can go on."

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2The Five-Year Engagement and the Case of the Missing Bunny

Apatow Productions / Relativity Media

"In The Five-Year Engagement, the opening scene of the film is this costume party where Jason Segal and Emily Blunt's characters meet. We played around with a lot of ideas because the script didn't specify who they were dressed up as. Jason is 6'4'', and he's a strapping, good-looking guy. We were like, "What would be the most ridiculous, adorable costume he could wear?" We decided it was a pink bunny. (We wrote "Super Bunny" on the front.) Later on, we were filming a scene in San Francisco and Nick [Stoller], the director, said, "Wouldn't it be hilarious—now that he's gotten depressed over the course of the five-year engagement—if he were back in the bunny suit, but now it's dirty, like it's been packed in a box for the last five years?" Of course, we had left the bunny suit in Michigan and were now in San Francisco. Somehow there was a fabric store down the street, and—no exaggeration—one of my assistants whipped up a pink bunny suit and we dirtied it down on the spot. We recreated it in under and hour. It was unbelievable. Now, we have two pink bunnies: one aged to perfection and one still brand spanking new."

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3Getting My Start On Clueless

Everett

"Clueless was my last assistant design job before I went off on my own. At the time, I wasn't sure the direction I wanted my career to take—then came Clueless. Where we were shooting, there was an all-girls school, and I remember driving by there on my way to work. We would always laugh about how everyone found their style within the bounds of their uniform. That was the idea behind the tennis outfits. Amy Heckerling, the director, had such a clear view of what she thought the fashion should be. Of course, the most iconic look was Alicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash in matching plaid, Stacy with that Dr. Seussish hat of hers. It was also a play on the uniform—but so fashionable at the same time. Those outfits ended up setting the tone for much of the movie, and we fell in love with matching everything.

I can't believe it's been 20 years. It's funny to be doing Zoolander 20 years after Clueless. Clueless was such a fun fashion opportunity that was unexpected, and Zoolander is such a fun fashion opportunity that's so pushing the envelope."

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4Teaming Up With Amy Schumer in Trainwreck

Apatow Productions

"I really feel like I've met a new friend in Amy Schumer. We're actually doing a philanthropy project together that I'm really excited about—we're helping to style women to get back to work, whether it's because they were in the military and are looking to transition into the workforce or they've been in shelters. Our goal is to empower women with comedy and fashion. It's still in the beginning stages, but we're going to hold our first event with the Goodwill in September.

We've been roaring with laughter in practically every fitting. There was one outfit that Amy wears in Trainwreck that I felt said it all. She was in this short short pale blush Isabel Marant organza ruffle skirt, which she wore with a blush and navy striped tank and a little blazer over it. You'd see her sitting at a desk in a blazer, and then she stands up and she's got all this flirtiness with this adorable skirt on. You could tell Amy felt so good it in, the way she walked. I love that feeling when somebody puts something on, and all of a sudden their posture changes and you can tell they feel fantastic."

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5Russell Brand's Repeat Outfit in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek

Everett

"Forgetting Sarah Marshall was the first movie I did with Judd. I remember in the Hawaii hotel portion I had made all the uniforms for the hotel out of a vintage silk fabric with a great sixties print but a Hawaiian feel to it. From that, I got all these actual hotel uniform requests!

And you know that pair of Balenciaga leather pants that Russell Brand lived in? I got them for Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but he ended up wearing them again in Get Him to the Greek."

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6Get Him to the Greek's Fabulously Absurdist Music Vids

"Rose Byrne and Russell Brand's characters are supposed to be these crazy pop stars, so we made a variety of music videos, some of which didn't make the film but ultimately went crazy on YouTube. We shot the most famous on, "African Child," one the first day of filming. Right off the bat, I was like to Rose, "Okay, we're going to get you into a monokini now!"

The music video for "Ring Around the Rosie," with the crazy Marie Antoinette wigs, we shot (maybe unsurprisingly) at 2 o'clock in the morning kind of impromptu, much sooner than we had planned to. I actually hand-sewed that top onto Rose. It took a little snip, snip, snip to get it off."

"There wasn't as much substance to Melissa's character, Megan, on the page, so we didn't really know—Where does she come from? Where does she work? What does she do? Melissa had a lot of brilliant ideas. At one point Judd was like, "What if she was in a trench coat the entire time?" Melissa was like, "No, no, no." We talked about Hawaiian shirts, and I went to college with a girl who had a similar style to what Melissa wears in the movie, but the feminine aspect to her outfit was that she always wore a pearl necklace. It was so specific. This girl came from a family of seven sisters—this could easily get back to her, by the way—and all the girls wore pearl necklaces. They were all really sporty and incredible athletes in school. So we used that pearl necklace in all of Melissa's outfits. It was probably the most fun movie I've worked on."

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8Rose Byrne's Bionic Bra in Neighbors

"We wanted it to be believable that Rose was breast-feeding, so we built her this authentic contraption to make it feel like it. It was this bra that we made using a heavyweight silicone insert to really make it feel like the weight and size were there. At the time, a couple good friends of mine, who are also quite petite like Rose, were having kids, and the adjustment in their shape and physique was amazing, so I used them as reference."

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9American Pie's Poster Child

Getty ImagesLeesa Evans

"By the time we got to designing the movie poster, we had already shot the pie scene. I was really impressed with Jason [Biggs]—it takes a lot of confidence to get up in front of 150 crew members and do that. So when it was time to decide on a poster, it was the obvious choice. It was so vulnerable and sweet."

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